Insurance regulators in Texas say they have already received at least 1700 complaints stemming from Hurricane Ike insurance claims, the Houston Chronicle reports. A representative from the Texas Department of Insurance told the Chronicle that they are monitoring the complaints to make sure they are resolved fairly.

In October, the risk assessment firm Risk Management Solutions estimated that damage costs from Hurricane Ike could go as high as $21 billion. Another report from the Insurance Services Office (ISO) found that Texas led all other states in insured losses this year, owing mostly to the impact of Hurricane Ike, as well as Gustav and Dolly, on the state. With insurance companies taking a big hit from Ike, it looks like they are scrutinizing damage claims very closely - and some policyholders say, unfairly.

Lowball settlement offers were cited the most by the disgruntled policyholders interviewed by the Chronicle. Some homeowners said they have had to dip into their own pockets to pay public adjusters and engineers to properly evaluate their claims. The complaints involve both private insurance companies, as well as public entities like the Texas Windstorm Association and National Flood Insurance Program, the Chronicle said.

Many of the disputes will likely end up in court. Earlier this week, we reported that Texas judges are already preparing for a deluge of Hurricane Ike insurance claim lawsuits. According to the Associated Press, they have discussed appointing one judge as pretrial judge for all residential insurance lawsuits. The Associated Press said they hope to have a plan in place by January.

One judge told the Associated Press that they wanted to be prepared for a possible repeat of what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Conflicts between Hurricane Katrina homeowners and insurance companies led to more than 1000 lawsuits against insurance companies, the largest number ever to follow a natural disaster in the US.

Many of the Katrina lawsuits involved disputes over whether damage was caused by wind or flood. Much of the damage from Katrina was the result of storm surge, which insurance companies deem to be flood damage. Normal insurance doesn’t cover flooding. However, policyholders and their advocates argued that since storm surge is only caused by wind, damage from it should be attributed to wind and covered by homeowners insurance.

A 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on insurance issues from Hurricane Katrina urged better assessment of “the accuracy of flood payments on hurricane-damaged properties.” Insurance companies’ handling of damage claims from hurricanes, where both wind and water destroy property, needs closer government scrutiny, the report said.

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season ended Sunday, marking the finish of one of the busiest and costliest hurricane seasons ever.

The damage caused by this year’s Atlantic hurricanes is estimated at $54 billion, according to the National Climatic Data Center. That’s second in recorded history only to 2005, the year Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. The total that year was an estimated $128 billion.

Government studies have noted that, when adjusted for inflation and other factors such as population density in coastal areas, some hurricane seasons from early last century could be seen as more expensive.

Still, the huge financial impact of this year’s storms took their toll on an already-struggling economy.

It was the fourth busiest Atlantic hurricane year since 1944. The National Climatic Data Center said 2008 is “the only year on record in which a major hurricane existed in every month from July through November in the north Atlantic.”

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 26 — Storm watchers say this year’s U.S. hurricane season was typical with one exception: Hurricane Ike, which showed how misleading labeling hurricanes can be.A Category 2 storm, Hurricane Ike bombarded the Texas Gulf Coast in September, causing $11.4 billion in damage, which Texas A&M atmospheric sciences Professor John Nielsen-Gammon says makes it the most expensive storm in Lone Star history.

“We learned from Ike that a storm surge even from a Category 2 storm can be devastating,” said Nielsen-Gammon, who also is the state climatologist. “Texas had three storms that hit the coast — Ike, Dolly and Eduard. Dolly was also a Category 2 and Eduard never exceeded tropical storm strength. Ike will be the one everyone remembers from the 2008 season,”

There were 15 named storms in 2008, about what was expected when the season began June 1 and officially ends Nov. 30, Nielsen-Gammon said in a news release issued by the university.

Nielsen-Gammon said some studies indicate the number of hurricanes hovered around the average for the past 20 years, but the storms’ overall intensity seemed to be increasing.

“But in the long run, trends don’t matter much when a storm hits where you live,” he said.

In a perverse way, Texas Southern University earned bragging rights from Hurricane Ike.

It wasn’t the damage — almost $16 million and counting — that forced the closure of one classroom building and pushed 45 faculty members into temporary offices. That didn’t make anyone happy.

But President John Rudley said the school’s ability to begin repairs using money it had in reserve offered proof that the school has turned a corner.

“We are back in business,” Rudley said.

For better or worse, TSU’s post-Ike troubles resemble those of other campuses — fewer trees, more portable buildings and millions of dollars in pending repairs.

Overall, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board reports that the hurricane cost Texas colleges about $847 million, including $314 million in building damage. (Other costs include cleanup, damaged equipment and lost revenue from canceling classes and events; not all schools reported those costs.)

The University of Texas Medical Branch on Galveston Island accounted for most of that — more than $700 million, including $225 million in building damage. Texas A&M University at Galveston reported $22 million in building damage, although campus spokeswoman Karen Bigley put total costs at more than $52 million.

A&M at Galveston moved its classes to the main campus in College Station for the semester, and UTMB resumed classes Monday.

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Blue tarps are still on roofs. Fences are still down. Carpet and gypsum wallboard haven’t been replaced.

All remain familiar sights and stories in the Houston area more than a month after Hurricane Ike made landfall. Naturally, no one really expects everything to be back to normal so soon. Still, consumers are eager to be made whole.

Jerry Hagins, spokesman with the Texas Department of Insurance, said the industry is responding with unprecedented resources, but the state still is getting complaints that adjusters are not coming in a timely manner. With the magnitude of the damages, he said, delays are unavoidable.

“We are urging patience,” he said, “but we are also urging people to call us if they are feeling like it’s taking longer than it should be.”

The number: 800-252-3439.

Loretta Worters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group, said adjusters are handling the most severely damaged properties first. She said it took a while for adjusters to get to those areas because of downed power lines and other debris.

“The success rate (of settling claims) has been high in other disasters,” Worters said. “After Hurricane Katrina, which was a huge loss to the industry, 98 percent of all claims were taken care of within a year. … We expect similar things with Ike.”

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